Augmented Target Docking Adapter
A backup vehicle for the ATV, known as the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA), was constructed by McDonnell from the docking target and the Gemini reentry attitude control thruster assembly for use if the primary ATV failed. The ATDA was designed to allow docking, but lacked the propulsion capability of the Agena rocket. The ATDA was used on Gemini 9A, after the Atlas-Agena launch vehicle failed. However, the Gemini 9 crew could not dock with the ATDA because the nose cone shroud failed to separate properly.
Read more about this topic: Agena Target Vehicle
Famous quotes containing the words augmented and/or target:
“Another success is the post-office, with its educating energy augmented by cheapness and guarded by a certain religious sentiment in mankind; so that the power of a wafer or a drop of wax or gluten to guard a letter, as it flies over sea over land and comes to its address as if a battalion of artillery brought it, I look upon as a fine meter of civilization.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But this we know, the obstacle that checked
And tripped the body, shot the spirit on
Further than target ever showed or shone.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)